Life in the Rioja wine district of Spain

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Monthly Archives: May 2010

Last Sunday night I organized a dinner with a group of visiting Canadians with María José López de Heredia from R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia. María José, ever the engaging speaker, treated the group to an enlightening lecture about the 133 year history of her company.

Everyone knows that after phylloxera attacked French vineyards towards the end of the 19th century, French winery owners came to Rioja in search of wine. If you read about this period of history in wine books, it was the Bordeaux wine trade that came here. María José, however, claimed that after extensive research into records in her winery and others in Rioja, it was discovered that most of the French wineries were from Alsace because Rioja wineries were producing white, rather than red wine.

Surprised? I certainly was. María José explained that in the 19th century, more white wine than red was made and consumed in Rioja, and consequently white was taxed at a higher rate.

Did you ever wonder why red wine in Spanish is called tinto (tinted) instead of rouge (red) as in French or negre (black) as in Catalán? According to María José, most red wines in Rioja in the 19th century were whites that were ‘tinted’ with red wine to pay lower taxes! While some reds were produced and exported to Bordeaux, according to historical records, most Rioja was white and shipped to Alsace.

In fact, in the 19th century, doctors recommended consumption of white wine for health reasons because the tannins in red were believed to be harmful.

I think it’s fascinating that María José hired an ethnographer to study the winery archives to set the record straight. I’m sure that because of this research, other interesting facts will come to light about the history of Rioja.

One of the things I was looking forward to by working on my own was seeing wine through a consumer’s eyes, with as little interference from my previous professional involvement as possible. This means opening a bottle with friends, family and food and just enjoying it. After spending most of last week at the presumptuously named ‘7th World Wine Forum’ here in Logroño, where viticulturists, winemakers, politicians, marketers and assorted gurus (only one of which talked about the importance of social media) discussed the current state of the industry, I’ve been tempted to adopt a ‘Men in Black’ policy.

As you all remember, ‘Men in Black’ is about a secret police force whose mission is to protect the hidden but large and influential alien population on Earth and to keep humans from discovering its existence. Whenever humans are accidentally made aware of the presence of aliens, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the ‘men in black’, put on their protective sunglasses and shoot off a special device that makes the humans forget what they’ve seen.

Some of the things I heard at the World Wine Forum reminded me of this movie.

After listening to a very interesting presentation about how Germany is using Mendelian genetics to make vines resistant to plagues such as mildew, oidium and phylloxera (by patiently crossing strains), a process that they have shortened from 35 years to 15), I began to feel good about the effect of ‘green’ policies in the wine trade. However, later that day, another presentation discussed the use of biotechnology (i.e. genetic modification using bacteria as catalysts for the same purpose ).

Do we need fast track genetically modified grapes? The winemakers from Rioja sitting around me didn’t think so. But I’m afraid that in our fast-paced society no one will have the patience to wait, like Mendel, to cross plants to create disease-resistant grapevines, opting instead for genetic modification by using bacteria. I only hope that if this is inevitable, grapevines are bred to produce fewer grapes. This is probably the only way to reduce the current imbalance between supply and demand.

I also had to sit through several presentations about ‘How to win big in the US or UK market’. I’ve been listening to these presentations for almost 40 years and think it’s about time to start talking about having conversations with consumers.

So, Will and Tommy Lee, shoot me with your amnesia gun! I just want to enjoy wine.

Rioja was buzzing last week because of the publication of an extensive report praising Spanish wines in Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate and the news that Parker’s associate Dr. Jay Miller, responsible for Spanish wines, would be visiting our region and tasting the week of May 3. A list of 104 Riojas scoring 90 points and above was published in the wine website of our local newspaper LA RIOJA. Miller indicated that his list would be added to following his stay and when it comes out, I’ll write about it.

As you know, I’m not a big fan of rating wines here but I have to admit that a good rating from Parker or the Wine Spectator is good for sales, at least in the USA. I remember when I was the director of Bodegas & Bebidas USA in the late 80s and early 90s, whenever Campo Viejo got a 90 or above from RP or WS I would run to the local Speedy Print to have a few thousand shelf talkers printed which I would send to our distributors around the country (this was before the advent of online print programs). Sales inevitably spiked upwards.

As a big fan of statistics, I couldn’t resist analyzing the scores and prices, and following Miller’s statement that today, “Rioja offers a big bang for your buck” (hilariously translated in a newspaper article as ‘una gran explosión por un dólar’), I created the ‘Biggest Bang for your Buck’ index by dividing the Miller score by the suggested retail price. I’m sure that my statistics professors in college wouldn’t approve, beacause the system has an obvious flaw: a really badly scored wine, say 60 points that retails for $5, would receive a BBB score of 12 but is a bad deal, unless you’re looking for something to cook with.

My suggestion with this list, if you’re a Parkerista, is:

A BBB score of 3 or more: RUN, don’t walk, to your local retailer.

A BBB score of 2 to 3: look for the wine for a special occasion.

A BBB score of under 2: caveat emptor

I think the Swedes have the best idea. Every month when the liquor board Systembolaget presents the new releases, it organizes a panel tasting for journalists. The accepted rating system is:

Fynd (treasure)

Mer än prisvärda (great quality/price relationship)

Prisvärda (correct quality/price relationship)

Ej prisvärda (too expensive for what’s in the bottle)

I have a lot more to say about this topic, so I’ll write about it in my next post, which will discuss what the US market is saying about pricing and where Rioja seems to stand.